The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-03-10
SPECULATION.
Legitimate and Otherwise.
John Ruskin the Eminent English Au-
thor Speeulates On the Subject.
IRichmond Whig.l

| Now, that speculation is SO rife in
the country, and so many persons are
risking their all in hazardous schemes |
and investments, which are liable to
fail and thus bring distress upon them
selves, their families and friends, we
publish the following timely warning
from the eloquent pen of the distin-
guished English writer, John Ruskin,
and commend it to the thoughtful !
consideration of those who teel tempt |
ed TO abandon the slow process of ac-
cumulat;ng a fortune in some regular !
and legitimate business, in order to
take their chances in risky specula-
tions:
There are some speculations that are
fair and honest speculations made with
our own money, and which do not in
volve in their success the loss, by 9th
ers, of what we gain. But generally
modern speculation involves much
risk to others, with chance of profit
only to ourselves; even in its best con-
ditions it is merely one of the forms of
gambling or treasure-hunting; it is
either leaving the steady plough and
the steady pilgrimage of llfe, to look
for silver mines beside the way; or else
it is the full stop beside the dice-table
in Vanity Fair, investing all the
thoughts and passions of the soul in
the fall of the cards, and choosing
rather the wild accidents of idle for
tune than the calm and accumulative
rewards of toll. And this is destruc
tive enough, at least to our peace and
virtue. But it is usually destructive of
far more than our peace or our virtue.
Have you ever deliberately set your
selves to imagine and measure the suf-
fering, the guilt; and the mortality
!, caused necessarially by the failure of
any large-dealing merchant, or large
: ly-branched bank? Take it at the
Y lowest possible supposition-count, at
), the fewest you choose, the families
e whose means of support have been in
Y volved in the catastrophe. Then, on
# the morning after the intelligence OF
If ruin, let us go forth amongst them in
Y earnest thought; let us use that imagl-
h nation which we waste so often on nc
n titious sorrow, to measure the stern
: facts of that multltudinous distress;
e strike open the private doors OF their
Is chambers and enter silently into the
: midst OF the domestic misery; look
a upon the old men who had reserved
y tor their failing strength some re
ct mainder of rest in the eveningtide o
II life, cast helplessly back into trouble
is and tumult; look upon the ACTIVE
as strength of middle age suddenl.
10 blasted into incapacity-its hope
a crushed and its hardly earned reward
r. snatched away in the same instant, a
ed once the heart withered and the righ
an arm snapped. Look upon the piteou
of children, delicately nurtured, who's
ur soft eyes grown large with wonder
lily their parents grief, must soon be set
les the dimness of famine; and far MOI
Id than all this, look forward to tt
in lenght of sorrow beyond to the kare
in est labor of life now to be undergon
Ut either in all the severity Of inexp
rienced trial, or else, more bitter stII
Try to be begun again, and endured IL
us. the second time, amidst the ruins
all cherished hopes and the feebleness
its, advancing years, embittered by Il
;el. continual sting and taunt OF the Inn
feeling that it has all been broug
till about, not by the fair course OF a
eir pointed circumstances, but by mIser
m BILE chance and wanton treachery; al
ms, last of all, look beyond this to t
the shattered destinies of those who ha
or faltered under the trial and sunk P;
on recovery to despair. And then CO
III slider whether the hand which has POI
pom ed the poison into all the springs
,lic, life be one whiteless red with hum
blood than that which literally poi
,ur- the hemlock into the cup, or gulo
n a the dagger to the heart? We re
to with horror of the crimes OF a Bor
!. or Tophana; but there never li'
Borgias such as live now in the mi
rth- of us. The cruel lady of Ferrara 81
der only in the strength of passion
S of slew only few, those who thwar
nine her purposes or who vexed her sc
very she Slew sharply and suddenly, emil
tering the fate of her victims with
foretastes of distraction, no prolon
pee tions of pain; and, finally and chic
Oh she slew, not without remorse
just without pity. But we, in no storm
DOM passion-in no blindness of wrat
ana we, in calm and clear and untemI
'aho, selhshness, pour our poison, not TO
few only but for multitudes; not
ho d those who have wronged US, or re
To- ed. but for those who have trusted
can and aided; we, not with sudden 81
n,erciful and unconscious death,
,osals with slow waste of hunger and "
,I.,s rack of disappointment and desl